The invention relates to a fixture for use in repairing radiators, facilitating removal and replacement of radiator tanks.
Traditionally, radiators have been formed in essentially three parts, the core structure consisting of multile tubes for cooling the liquid within the radiator and a tank on each end of the core. Each end of the core is provided with a header polate for engagement with the tank. In prior years the tank was soldered to the header. More recently plastic tanks have been used with a core of brass, copper or aluminum. The core has a conventional header on each end thereof for engagement with the tank. However, the more recent radiator construction provides tabs on the header which are bent down to secure the tank to the header.
With the advent of the plastic tank radiators, it became difficult to repair and replace the tanks or core structure because of difficulties in releasing the tabs holding the tank to the radiator and in recrimping the tabs. Frequently, by reason of the lack of proper tools, the tank and radiator would become damaged during assembly and disassembly operations, and it became necessary to provide tools and equipment which would permit the assembly and disassembly of the plastic tank with respect to the radiator without damage to the plastic tank or to the header structure of the radiator. It is also desirable to provide even pressure on the tank top during assembly and disassembly operations.
There have been in the prior art attempts to solve the problems noted hereinbefore. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,411,414 and 4,462,146 disclose a fixture and crimping tool for facilitating the assembly and disassembly of automobile radators. In the structure disclosed in these patents, clamping gates are provided which are adjustable to receive a radiator header with clamping means to hold the top of the radiator tank in engagement with the core while the radiator is being resoldered or during crimping and decrimping of the header tabs of plastic tank radiators. The present invention seeks to achieve the same objectives as the devices shown in the prior patents referred to but more efficiently and effectively.